No comments about Delorme Maine Map and Guide: Detailed Road Map, Travel Information.

No comments about Frommer's Bed and Breakfast Guides: New England : Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut (Frommer's Bed & Breakfast Guide New England).

1 comments about Maine Coast Impressions.

1. Nancy's Maine photographs are great. It helps to see the great rocky Maine coast when time and gas prices make it tough to travel. A good book full of great Maine photos.

3 comments about 50 Hikes in the Maine Mountains: Day Hikes and Backpacks in the Fabled Northern Peaks and Lake Country (Fifty Hikes Series).

1. Cloe wasn't always chunn, but she is still the best guide writer. Her knowledge of geology is especially helpful. Along with historical anecdotes, flora and fauna and well scripted trail detail, cloe's love of the maine woods shines through every page. Her book(s) are like our bible when we hike in Baxter Park and other Maine locales.



2. This book is fantastic and has led me to a number of great hikes right outside my door. With the changing nature of the forest and continued harvesting, it is probably time for a new edition, a few of the trails don't exist quite like they once did.



3. Just came back from hiking Tumbledown Mt. using the description in the book...What Cloe doesn't tell you is that Loop climbs through boulders to an apparent dead end where you can either do a vertical climb up a rock face (to a ledge which dead ends) or traverse a face up underneath a huge overhanging boulder which has water running out of it...if you try the latter you'll find rungs leading through to the continuation of the trail. But none of this was in the book. We lost about 20 minutes & had to do some fairly technical unprotected climbing before we realized where the trail went. This kind of information is why I would buy a trail guide...as it was, we ended up in a frustrating and potentially dangerous situation b/c of the inadequate description in this book.

No comments about Northern Forest Canoe Trail: Allagash Region, South, Maine, Umbazooksus Stream to Umsaskis Lake (Northern Forest Canoe Trail Maps).

4 comments about Maine Lobsterboats.

1. I wish the author had spent more time to the east of Penobscot Bay. With her repeated references to the designers and builders of Beals Island and Jonesport, I felt she should have spent more time there than she did. Interestingly, the oft heard complaint about the impact the modern, fast designs have had on the traditional good looks of the Maine lobsterboat seem to have come from those designers and builders whose boats don't make the "cut" at the seven-event lobsterboat race series held though out the summer along the Maine coast.

   A better read than expected but not as complete as I'd hoped for.




2. Thorndike has assembled a thoroughly engrossing collection of solid information, individual viewpoints, opinions and tall tales about the Maine lobsterboat told in their own words by the people who know and love them best. Each interview unveils the character of the individual as well as the boats they talk about. Downeast life on the water comes alive in the droll understated humor that is their characteristic means of expression. The book is pure pleasure.



3. Informative and entertaining with local flavor from the men who build lobsterboats and fish them. Enjoyed it.



4. "Dinnie" Thorndike, ex-diary farmer and town selectman, also book writer, has written about a type of motorboat she likes. She and husband Phil bought one, a "lobster yacht" they named Sea Smoke. In it they cruised Maine waters and saw other lobsterboats and, about the same time, the urge to write about what she was seeing snuck up on her and she had to start writing. (This happens to us writers. Can't help it.) The book is the result.
   
   Don't expect a scholarly epistle on the origins of lobsterboats and their evolution although Dinnie somehow includes an awful lot of such information. Nope, this book is what its title says it is-a series of lively interviews with those that design, build, operate, and race lobsterboats (race as in "up to 55 mph"). She gets people talking, she listens, she remembers, and it all goes down on paper so pat and smooth I can but envy her skill.
   
   A chapter may be the result of talking to one person. Old-timers Leroy Dodge, and George Allen. Designers Arno Day and Spencer Lincoln. Builders-in-wood Peter Kass and Dick Pulsifer of Hampton Boat fame. Builders-in-fiberglass like the Young Brothers. Lobsterboat racers like Gweeka Williams and the Holland Family. (Did you know that Maine lobsterboats were invaluable support vessels in the unsuccessful effort to defend the America's Cup at San Diego in 1995? One was the famed racing lobsterboat Red Baron, which was used as a weather boat.)
   
   Or a chapter may be Dinnie's assemblage of facts and stories about a subject. Rum-running. Old-time "fishing" (meaning lobstering). Lobsterboat superstitions. Lobsterboats as water taxis and tugs. Lobsterboats as valued family pleasure boats. Lobsterboats seining, hand-lining, gill-netting, and even lobstering.
   
   Dnnie keeps up an easy flow of quotes, stories, facts, and fun. I highly recommend this book if only for the pleasure the reader will get from watching a very good writer stoutly march through a subject.

No comments about Hot Showers!: Maine Coast Lodgings for Kayakers and Sailors.

No comments about Kittery - Gateway to Maine: A History & Guidebook to Kittery And Kittery Point.

No comments about Country Artwalks from Maine to Maryland.

3 comments about North to Katahdin.

1. After reading a few chapters, I found this book hard to want to read. Pinder's style is dry and slow, and leaves plenty to be desired. The stories he tells are rather uneventful, though I usually enjoy writings about simple events, but only when written well. The cover might lead a potential reader to believe Pinder will criticize yuppy hikers and the flocks of roof-racked Subaru driving granolas that fill the parking lots at his beloved trailheads. Pinder does not, however. He spends a fair amount of time talking with and about the thru-hikers he meets on the trail. I do believe there are better books to buy, and if one if interested in having the most "genuine experience" while out of doors, read some Thoreau.



2. Even though I bought this book "by mistake", thinking it had something to do with the video of the same name about thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail, I ended up enjoying it a lot. Pinder talks about why we go into the wilderness and what the essentials of the experience are. Having climbed Katahdin a few years ago, and having finished a section-hike of the entire AT recently, I enjoyed comparing my own experiences with his. He does a good job of explaining just why Baxter State Park is so special. Read it if you're on your way to (or back from) Katahdin.



3. I have no real interest in hiking, but since this book was written by my Cousin Eric, I wanted to read it. I found it to be very interesting, even for someone who has never been to Mt. Katahdin or on the Appalachian Trail. So even if you are a non-hiker, don't be afraid to try this book. I think you will be pleasantly surprised. It is easy to read and has some very interesting and touching stories.